(source: life123)
I recently stumbled upon an article (Wolf, 2008) discussing a young man who was reported to have climate change delusions. According to the report, this man believed that, due climate change, his water consumption could lead to the death of millions of people. He experienced depression, insomnia, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among other symptoms. He reported feeling very guilty about his influence on others' water supply and he even tried to stop drinking water because of these thoughts.
The article mentioned that incorporation of contemporary phenomena is common in delusional disorders, but the authors could not locate other examples of climate change delusions. The young man was prescribed medication, and after a few days, no longer endorsed his climate change delusions.
I think this case is fascinating for a number of reasons. First, I think it is a really interesting example of how fears about climate change are becoming a focus of psychological treatment and disorder. Secondly, although I am not disagreeing that his thoughts were inaccurate, it is interesting to see how we view anxiety about climate change as disordered or delusional.
As people become increasingly aware of climate change and its associated consequences, the fears will likely become a focus of therapy and may increase the rates of anxiety and depression in our population. People who are more prone to anxiety or depression may in fact be the first people to show this anxiety and could be key people in responding to the crisis. I recently read a book called "Surviving the Depression Epidemic" by Bruce Levine and this author brought up the fact that when patients are anxious and depressed about the state of the world, we respond by labeling them as disordered and treating them. I think this response should be somewhat questioned when a reasonable reaction to our predicament may be anxiety and sadness! I'm not saying that people who are struggling with anxiety or depression should not receive treatment, I just think that we should expect these sorts of reactions and validate to clients that climate change is frightening and some amount of anxiety and sadness are normal reactions. Instead, we tend to think that people who are not bothered by anything as "normal." I never really questioned this notion until recently and always felt jealous of people who seem completely unfazed by world problems. However, in thinking about the situation with climate change and how our generation is faced with this huge problem that will be an even greater burden to each successive generation, I wonder what the "normal reaction" should be. Either way, clinical psychologists are likely to deal with increasing numbers of people who feel very anxious about the future and may even feel like they have a fore-shortened future or wonder about what the next generation's quality of life with be. I think that people who are prone to anxiety or depression have probably had concerns about any apocalyptic-type threat throughout history, but I wonder if these types of threats are at one of the highest peaks and that is why we are seeing increasing rates of depression and anxiety. One might think that people who are prone to these symptoms are ill-equipped to deal with climate change and think of these traits as disadvantageous. However, I would think that it would be adaptive for a society to preserve a gene pool that includes some predisposition to these traits- it is advantageous to have some people whose radars go off so that we can respond to problems. Additionally, it may only be when anxiety and sadness become debilitating that they are counterproductive. If anxiety leads to greater awareness and action, then it can be a great asset to a society. I wonder which reaction tends to be more beneficial: denial or anxiety?
I also wonder about the man with the climate change delusions and how he fits into all this. Although his idea that he could kill millions of people by drinking water wasn't accurate, I can see how the idea of inter-connectedness among people and the finite quality of resources was the basis for his delusion. These are ideas that are very important to understanding climate change, and I don't think his ideas are that far-off from some of the anxieties that we all feel sometimes. His ideas may actually be a good example of how a child might experience the anxiety associated with climate change: a slight distortion but based in a scary reality. This is a good reminder that talking to children about climate change and addressing their anxiety will likely be a difficult but important task for current and future parents.
There are many other angles from which to view the relationship between mental health and climate change and I will tackle other topics in posts to come.
